Heroes: Positive Quirks
I was not going to write about this, but i feel i need to. Quirks in this game are “passives” (like in a mmorpg or like lol) that grants a hero either a slight bonus (more damage, more health, etc) or a downgrade (more stress, less damage, etc). Most heroes comes with a set of quirks that can be either useful or just can be a deal breaker over picking a hero, so before recluiting a hero always look at his skill set (the more skills he has you want the less money you need to use) and his quirks (there are some quirks that are straight bad or terrible on a hero).
The mechanics behind the quirks is that you can have up to 5 active quirks on one hero with the possibility to lock up to three quirks in the sanitarium. When a hero with 5 quirks receive a sixth one random quirk will dissapear and the new one will take it´s place, with the exception of locked quirks who won´t dissapear under any circunstance. Have in mind that the highest the resolve level of your hero the expensive it will take to lock the quirk, so do it early for maximum efficiency.
For the positive quirks they are more focused in giving you a slight edge over certain situations (quick reflexes, unyelding), or do an already useful mechanic (like camping or scouting) even more powerful, or just improving in flat numbers certain actions (more damage, more stress healed). It is up to you to decide what is your character going to do in order to decide which perk helps him to do the job better. Now while there are a bunch of quirks, all with different kind of bonuses, these are the ones i like to use:
- Early riser: It gives you +2 speed when torch is above 75, and any kind of “free” speed is good for any hero, specially with damage dealers, stunners and healers.
- Eldritch hater: It gives you + 15 damage and – 15% stress vs any eldritch type, and in this game most mobs that pose a threat (bosses and mobs) has this type, so you get this bonus a lot. Also in the darkest dungeon all mobs has this type, so it gives you an edge in here.
- Eldritch slayer: It gives you + 10 ACC and + 3 crits vs any eldritch type, so you don´t miss attacks against them in the more difficult dungeons. Also in the darkest dungeon all mobs has this type, so it gives you an edge.
- Beast hater: It gives you + 15 damage and – 15% stress vs any beast type, so it helps you against certain bosses to deal more damage.
- Beast slayer: It gives you + 10 ACC and + 3 crits vs any beast type, so you don´t miss in the hardest difficulties and crit more often, gaining some stress heal.
- Hard nogging: It gives you + 15% stun resist. You want to use this quirk with someone that cannot be allowed to be stunned under any situation (healers and stunners).
- Natural swing: It gives you + 5 ACC. This is more for the leper but it can be worth to be used in other heroes.
- On guard: It gives you + 4 speed and + 5 dodge in the first round of any combat. It is useful when used with stunners or debuffers, since they need to go first than the mobs so they can stop them from acting or debuff something (speed, ACC, damage).
- Quickdraw.: It gives you + 4 speed. This is a slight downgrade from on guard but still good. Lock it if you cant manage to get on guard.
- Quick reflexes: It gives you + 2 speed at any time. This skill is better for damage dealers and healers (but it can be good on stunners too) since they need to move faster than anyone to do their job better.
- Slugger: It gives you + 10% melee damage. This skill is good for damage dealers like the highwayman or the hellion since is a small boost for damage, but it can be quite obsolete late game since most mobs don´t die in one turn.
- Tough: It gives you 10% max heatlh. I love this quirk on healers and tanks, since the healers wants to focus on their allies as long as possible (and this quirk allows them to take a little bit more punishment) and in my tanks it makes them ever more tankier so the mobs have a harder time trying to kill them, they can do more♥♥♥♥♥♥before requiring healing and they don´t need to do damage.
- Hard skinned: It gives you 10% PROT. I love this quirk combined with tough. While 10% is nothing it can make a difference towards surviving a blow or being in deaths door. Use it with the same characters.
- Unerring: It gives you 10% ranged damage. This perk is mostly for the arbalest and the hound master but it can help them to do their jobs even better so i always look it. But it can become obsolete late game since the mobs won´t die on one hit (unless is a crit).
- Unyelding: It gives you 10% death blow resist. This is more for those heroes with lower health pool than anything, so you can decide to use it or miss it. I use it though with healers since they tend to be weak and targeted by the enemy a lot.
- Warrior of light: It gives you 10% damage when light is above 10%. The damage is for both ranged and melee so you can use it if you get it instead of their respective quirk.
- Fated: If you miss an attack it gives you a 10% of changing that into a hit. This is more for the
leper since he is a piece of♥♥♥♥♥♥and cannot land any attack in the hardest difficulties. - Nymphomanya: It gives you +20% stress healed when using the brothel. I always lock this quirk on my occultist or any hero that deserve it so they can provide some love in the brothel.
Now while this is my list of what i consider the most useful quirks you can use whatever quirk you want. Just have in mind that the ones that gives you less stress using a certain activity or the ones who offers more scouting chances in X dungeons are not so good since you will be condemning that character to be good only on that dungeon (since in the other said hero won´t have a quirk). And also for the camping skills they are not good since camping should be used to buff your party and not healing.
Heroes: Negative quirks
Bad quirks are the ones that gives a hero a “downside” under certain circunstances (weak grip of life, calm), durung certaing actions (Nocturnal, the yips), performing certain mechanics out of combat (stress eater) or just being under a certan curio (♥♥♥♥ing kleptos). These quirks have a little more impact than the positive ones since they have more punishing debuffs and sometimes they do things that takes away the control of your heroes and put it in the RNG jesus.
Like the positive quirks the negative ones can lock themselves (the risk rises as you complete dungeons with that character) and 3 can “normally” be locked in a character. The catch in here is that to remove a locked negative quirk takes more money that it would normally do if that quirk was “free” (not locked). Also there are certain curios that can lock a negative quirk even if it is already 3 locked, so be careful or you can find yourself with a character with more locked quirks.
As i said before there are some negative quirks that will affect negatively your character and you might want to take them out, but i will write a list of those that are the worst that you really want to take out as fast as possible:
- Nocturnal: It gives you – 2 speed when light torch is above 75. This perk is really bad in any character, and it affects you since in this guide we don´t do dungeons woth torchlight below 75.
- Shocker: It gives you – 10% stun resist. This perk is horrible since stuns is as effective against you as is effective against mob. So a hero without a turn is straight a bag full of nothing that weights you down.
- Mercurial: It gives you +5% affliction chance. You already have horrible odds againtst a resolve test, don´t make them worst. It can really ♥♥♥♥ you up an afflicted hero since the most dangeous thing in this game is when you don´t have your own heroes under your control. That´s what kills you.
- Winded: – 1 speed if heatlh is below 50%. This can be nothing in the early game since most of the mobs don´t do much damage (or at least damage that you can´t recover from), but in the hardest dungeons your health bar is like in dark souls; an ornament with numbers.
- Lazy eyes: – 5 ACC using ranged attacks. While the leper or the crusader laughs at this quirk, your arbalest will cry. You cannot let your arbalest have less acc, or she will bite you in the♥♥♥♥♥and miss more than a leper.
- The yips: – 5 ACC. This is worse than the other one since it affect every skill that affect mobs, and in the hardest difficulties you cannot allow that.
- Off guard: It gives you – 4 speed and – 5 dodge at the start of the fight. This♥♥♥♥♥♥just cannot be allowed to exist the momento you spot it. – 4 speed is a big hit in the balls and can ruin your entire round.
- Phengophobia: + 20% stress when torchlight is above 75. This is just horrible since your main strategy is to neglect as much stress as possible, and then comes this quirk and ♥♥♥♥s you. Also if you follow my guide (which you shouldn´t) you will find that some of the trinkets i suggest gives you more stress, and with this quirk your hero will become so stressed that he will become afflicted in no time.
- Slow draw: It gives you – 4 speed in the first turn. This is the same as off guard without the dodge penalty, but in the hardest difficulties it doesn´t really matter since they have a♥♥♥♥♥♥ton of acc so they don´t miss at all.
- Slow reflexes: It gives you – 1 speed. It might not sound so bad, but you cannot allow your characters to be slow at any time.
- Fragile: It gives you – 10% health. While it doesn´t sound so bad, you don´t want this quirk on your less tough heroes like the grave robber or vestal.
- Weak grip of life: It gives you – 10% blow death resist. Take it away as fast as possible, or you might find yourself with a dead hero.
- Light sensitive: It gives you – 10% damage when torchlight is above 10%. You cannot allow your heroes to become sloppy since you can get punished if they don´t kill fast.
- Any fear / phobia: It includes anything that gives you a debuff when facing a type (eldritch, beast, human, unholy). It includes every type since it makes you weaker against that certain type, making a hero weaker when heading towards a dungeon full of that type. The fear of eldritch can put you in a real bad spot in the darkest dungeon since all of the mob have this type, so your hero will become an stress sponge.
- Any treatment quirks: These quirks makes that a hero can only use one treatment facility to relieve stress. It can be bad since in the early game you are limited with only 1 room, and believe me when i say that the caretaker has the worst timing when using an activity.
- Any forced interaction quirks: These are the quirks that makes a hero to interact with a curio against your will. While sometimes it can be harmless, other times they can get a sickness or stress themselves or get a negative quirk without giving you a chance to do something, and these are the most annoying quirks since it is just so frustratring to lose control of a hero. Be also warned that the curious one is the most annoying of all of them since it triggers at almost anything letting you unable to interact with a curio the way you want (by either use an object or ignore it).